Lincoln Trail

The siege of Shirley Allen began September 22, 1997; the saga of
Shirley Allen began more than twenty years earlier.

According to newspaper reports, Shirley Ann Dugger met John Allen
in 1974, when Shirley, a registered nurse, was 28 years old. John,
then 53 and a widower for two years, had suffered a heart attack;
Shirley was his nurse.

In 1975, Shirley Dugger and John Allen married -- a marriage that
was to last 14 years until John's death from pancreatic cancer in
1989.

In spite of the fact he had four children from his first marriage,
John Allen reportedly left his entire $120,000 estate, including
the house now under siege in Roby, to Shirley Ann. The house and
accompanying 47 acres are now reportedly valued at $146,000.

In rural Heartland, lives a woman, Shirley Allen, who has been court-ordered to have a psychological evaluation. She doesn’t want it. She hasn’t hurt anyone. She has medication but isn’t taking it. A 51 year old woman in a rural home in mid America is attracting attention. For over a month, she has held-off the Illinois State Police in spite of their attempts...shutting off electricity, showering her with tear gas, sending in the dogs, blasting her with speaker sounds every 15 minutes, isolating her from others.

A crazy lady? Maybe...but she has been married, she has taken classes at a local university, she was employed as a nurse, she does support herself, she hasn’t threatened the lives of anyone (before the police arrived) and she did dislike her step children (who went to court). And, on the other hand, the state police are just trying to carry-out the directive from the court. So what’s so wrong about this situation? What is raising the dander on the backs of so many folks here in The Heartland?

Shirley is raising lots of questions in her own little “go away” way. Was the judge presented with fair, unbiased facts? Are the state police (or any police) protecting the rights of citizens or just carrying out orders regardless of the human damage? If the government representatives are wrong, will they sustain damage too. Will Shirley be so damaged after this experience that her life, as she knows it, will be finished? Will Shirley survive the “stand-off” or die in the house? Is our government too powerful....have the public servants become the masters? Have so many Americans been “stung” by government representatives and agencies that they now have no trust left? Can an angry relative ruin one’s life?

God bless Shirley...her struggle has become a national sore. Her problem causes us to think and take a stand. Shirley has, if even only briefly, caused The Heartlanders to think and, in some cases, take action.

Thank you, Shirley. Legislation will result. Change will come as a result of your stand. There is no way you could have ever dreamed your experience would have become so visible to the world. You have become a victim of our system, our process, our procedures. You have been damaged by the government servants. You were trapped by a judge’s desire to help you. You’re decline of help is unacceptable to the police...and the police response is unacceptable to the citizens.

Alert! Alert! Shirley is free! Look out America!